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Eco-Evo-Devo developmental symbiosis and developmental plasticity as…
Eco-Evo-Devo developmental symbiosis and developmental plasticity as evolutionary agents
Background
Eco-Evo-Devo attempts to study and model a more modern view of nature by including concepts such as developmental symbiosis and developmental plasticity into evolutionary theory.
Developmental symbiosis- The concept that organisms are partially constructed by the interactions between a host and its symbiotic microorganisms.
Developmental plasticity- the ability of embryonic organisms to react to environmental input via a change in morphology, or behavior.
Symbiosis
Holobionts and metaorganisms- All multicellular organisms must be associated with the microorganisms and the synergistic interdependence of the two must be weighed.
Symbiotic relationships are essential to development and drive co-development between host organism and microbe (i.e. light organ in squid)
The innate immune system might have evolved to protect from unwanted microbes and to protect the beneficial.
Microbes can even create conditions for reproductive isolation and facilitate evolutionary transitions.
Microbiomes are largely developed as newborns, and the ability of an animal to acquire the microbes needed for survival and avoid the harmful ones is not yet fully understood.
Developmental plasticity
3 Steps are needed: 1) plasticity's importance in evolutionary transitions 2) the developmental mechanisms 3) how selective breeding can produce predictable results in plasticity
Evolutionary transitions
Genetic accommodation can lead to traits being robust in stable environments and plastic in variable environments.
Comparative studies were done that showed various phenotypes can be brought out via developmental plasticity.
Mechanistic level
genetic pathways and genomes have been mapped out which has furthered the analysis of mechanics involved in plasticity as animals develop.
Conceptual and global climate change
niche construcition can greatly influence genetic variation, plasticity and even epigenetic
We are not sure how well populations will be able to withstand climate change and other global changes of the sort off of plasticity alone.
Conclusion
holobionts show that animals are not just individuals and mimic an interconnected web of organisms.
Natural selection could be working at the level of the holobiont and genes could be considered followers and not leaders of evolution at the phenotypic scale.
Reference: Gilbert SF, Bosch TCG, Ledón-Rettig C. 2015. Eco-Evo-Devo: developmental symbiosis and developmental plasticity as evolutionary agents. Nature Reviews Genetics. 16(10):611–622. doi:10.1038/nrg3982.